#BringBackStratis

[Kowalski]

Here is why I think Stratis needs to make a comeback on Asylum. Feel free to chime in with your own opinions:

RolePlay:
Some of the best casual roleplay I have ever witnessed took place in Agia Marina. It's like Kavala, but compressed into a town that's a tiny fraction of its size. Sounds like a recipe for AIDS, but hear me out! In the space of approximately one square kilometer, you have all of the civilian shops, BH shop, police HQ, and several activities (farming, mining, fishing, wrecking, gas station, etc.) That means that at any given time, you constantly have dozens of varying players in the same general area. Due to constantly being around others, people actually speak to and get to know eachother, building a tightly knit community. It's very easy to make friends and enemies without even joining a gang. This actually makes robbing/kidnapping/RDM'ing random civvies much more difficult, as there will often be good samaritans running around ready to cap anyone who tries to cheaply nab a 5k bounty or rook-bang random people for no reason.
Because it becomes a community, and because there's always someone to talk to, a lot of event-level fun BS occurs on a daily basis. A group of 10+ fresh spawns could be crawling in formation around Agia to the tune of "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees one moment, then rolling around in a flatbed truck raiding rebel next...just for kicks. It's refreshingly fun to have a server where you can pick up a group of randoms and do some crazy shit. You don't see that on Altis much because everyone's spread kilometers apart, and even when they do find someone in the wild, they keep their guns ready since meeting someone in the middle of nowhere typically only leads to "handsuphandsuphandsup" shit RP. Hell, even in Kavala people are weaving between buildings and getting cheap RDM's before sneaking away from the square. Agia was an AIDS hive, but because it wasn't as much of a punishment to die in such a small space, people embraced and had fun with it.

Vehicles:
On Stratis, there were no MRAP's, nor were there helicopters of any kind. People got around using quadbikes, cars, and trucks. This limitation made things more interesting: You were more likely to encounter people when you were out and about, roadblocks became tactically useful, and regular civs with small-caliber weapons stood a decent chance against groups of rebels. Bank robberies were interesting as the robbers often had to use creative means to plan their escape, be it by boat, or by having a good strategy for escorting their hemtt back to rebel. For example, one of my bank robberies involved sending out a decoy truck to get the cops' attention and move the fight away from the bank, while those carrying the gold bars hid nearby until the coast was clear and snuck back to rebel before a Lt. could order a raid.

Money-Making:
Getting cash was fairly lucrative for everyone! On Altis servers, IMO the only decent ways to make money are drug runner when you're alone on a low-pop server, or running meth with your gang in heli(s). On Stratis, there was a ton of variety. Sure, the Stratis gangs still ran meth all day, but because they didn't have helis, they had to be somewhat decent at the game, as they ran the risk of being intercepted by a group of independent rookbangers looking for a quick payday. Farming/Fishing/Mining were a decent source of starter-income due to the close proximity of the stores, and were fairly simple for new players since there were many cops and good samaritans around, and those who were looking to do something in a small armed group could do fun little things like weed runs or wreck excavating, as many players looking to rob those activities had similar skills and loadouts. 

Rebel Life:
Stopping by rebel to buy gear on Altis involves long periods of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror when the occasional Ifrit/Orca dropped in. On Stratis, there were two rebel bases. One was located at LZ Connor, which was popular with gangs due to its proximity to cartels/meth, and another was at Camp Tempest, which was closer to the civ spawns and was heavily contested by all sorts of players. Stratis's terrain rewarded the group with the best strategy for capturing/holding them. There have been instances where a gang of mongoloids would try to camp rebel only to get pistolwhipped by a clever fresh-spawn out of Girna because they thought numbers solved everything. At the same time, a skilled, strategic gang could also reliably keep cartels capped and rebel base under control when they were actively on, and because of the island's size, they were often willing to protect others running meth/guns/oil since they were close enough. Some great times were had with DHM and other gangs, whether you were with or against them, and I don't remember encountering enjoyable gang-RP on any other server.

 

I'll add more stuff as a reply as I think of it. I'll also try to dig up some videos and screenshots of my shenanigans to upload here as well.

 

TL;DR
Stratis's size and culture was great for new players and bitter veterans alike. There was always shit to do and people to talk to, and the server felt alive because people were always around. I'm tired of spending 10+ minutes driving on an empty highway, I want my Stratis back!

Edited August 27, 2019 by Kowalski

[Kowalski]

Just now, Lucien said:

Pretty sure there were 2 rebels 

You're right, forgot about Camp Tempest. Edited.

[Jakey]

#bringbackstratis

[Reformed epTic]

lets focus on getting the servers over 50 people first

[Kawaii]

Would be great but with server pop split between one and two as it is I don't think it's possible right now without killing off one server, which would be a controversial move at best

[ZIM2233]

+1000000

[Kowalski]

20 minutes ago, Kawaii said:

Would be great but with server pop split between one and two as it is I don't think it's possible right now without killing off one server, which would be a controversial move at best

Definitely wouldn't expect it anytime soon, especially since V2 is still a work in progress. Just a reminder that S5 is bae

[Detective Skies]

+1

[Defragments]

My life for Tanoa